1 – 7 APRIL 2023

Pleased to report that there are more premieres again this week and the Saturday evening slot, following on from Luzzu a week ago, looks especially promising. Easter is on the horizon, of course, and it looks as though the 1961 King of Kings (Good Friday) is leading out the usual suspects . . . .
SO LONG, MY SON (2019) Saturday 1 April 9.00-11.55pm BBC 4    P
The sort of epic saga that would be a mini-series in the US: 20 years, two families, a tragic accident and a subtle dissection of China’s “one-child policy”.  
HERSELF (2020) Monday 3 April 11.15pm-12.50am BBC 2    P       
Members have always appreciated a good Irish drama – and here is another one. Clare Dunne plays a mother who flees a violent husband and sets to work building a new home on a patch of land. Perhaps surprisingly, Phyllida Lloyd (Mamma Mia! And The Iron Lady) is the director. Incidentally, Maureen O’Hara titled her memoir ‘Tis Herself. 
NOW BARABBAS WAS A ROBBER (1949) Tuesday 4 April 6.35-8.15pm TP (Ch 82)         
The rarity for this week has Richard Burton, in only his second film, as an Irish terrorist, and Richard Greene, soon to be Robin Hood for the nascent ITV channel, as a murderer, in a rather compelling prison drama. 
THE SPIRITUALIST (1948) Friday 7 April 11.05pm-12.50am TP (Channel 82)         
Also known as The Amazing Mr X, this is a B-film with some class – and rather unnerving to boot. The cast is modest – Lynn Bari as the grieving widow and character actor Turhan Bey as the psychic – but director Bernard Vorhaus was always adept at making a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.